I say both have their pros and cons. I currenlty work full-time at a startup making $120k+ and I don' have my degree. But I am also finishing up my degree part

I say both have their pros and cons. I currenlty work full-time at a startup making $120k+ and I don' have my degree. But I am also finishing up my degree part time. I got into the industry by doing an internship at Electronic Arts, and being offered to stay full-time, and they knew full well that I didn't have a degree. I learned from some amazing backend engineers and architects, many of which had left EA shortly before I did. I can pretty much go anywhere now without a degree, because the most important thing in the industry is on the job experience. Though, I think the promise of me taking classes towards a degree helped me a bit. There are a few things I learned from the classes I took that I would have never learned on my own, at least I don't believe i would have. And many are important to my job now. But I am a backend engineer so I feel the theoretical stuff I learned for the CS degree apply more than a frontend engineer. Overall there are pros and cons to both approaches, but I could completely stop going to school right now and not be affected by it at all. Another thing you have to take into account is career growth. Many managerial positions aren't easy to get if you don't have a degree of some sort. So you might eventually hit a ceiling with being just a programmer. Unless you get lucky to make your way up somewhere, get the Resume experience and then move. Its not easy or black & white. But I know both have their pros and cons. I currently have 0 debt, since I am able to make my $2500 payments per semster at SJSU for partime class load. But I also have other circumstances, I still live at home, per my father's financial suggestions, saving money for my own house (want to do a 20% down payment). This lets me splurge more than most, still cover school, drive a nice car, and so on. So everyone's circumstances are different, you need to way all your options, all your responsibilities, and what you plan to do short and long term. Then make your decision. I know I will get my degree in 1-2 years of what I am doing now. SO i will have that damned piece of paper that for the most part will be useless to me until i get into more managerial roles, and even then it probably won't be as useful except get me into the interview.